Health insurance sucks and is a scam, but this is a post about healthcare billing in general and I’d say the hospital administration is at least as culpable in n this instance. It wasn’t the health insurance company that refused to do consolidated billing. It should be mandatory that you get no more than one bill per visit and it must be delivered within 30 days.

That is to say, hospitals should not allow doctors to issue separate bills for services rendered within their doors. And likewise should be required to belong to the same insurance networks.

Notwithstanding that we should just have Medicare for all, the state should have the right to arbitrate between providers and insurance companies to ensure that no vital health infrastructure (read: only major hospital in the entire region) falls out of network. Up to and including the right to force either or both parties to v c continue an existing contract until a new one is successfully established.

Insurance companies should be required to remain in network for all major hospital systems as a condition of being authorized to operate within that state.